Tuesday, August 30, 2011

My least favorite part of painting. I’m a ‘grab a brush and slap that paint on!’ kind of a gal so prepping offers me no interest. Thankfully I have a major over-planner type fella who stops me from impulsivity (aka fun). Taping has to be so precise and perfect; I think that’s what creams my corn about it. I don’t have the patience for such nonsense! Regardless we’ve been taping out little hearts out around our house. Take a peak at what we’ve been up to:

Because we have the batten board trim throughout the home the taping has to be done in two very long steps. First it has to be directly against the wall and floor to paint the white boards and panels.

We used a less expensive green tape on the floor because bleeding wasn’t as much of a danger and a fancier blue tape on the beige half of the wall that could be applied to walls which have been painted recently. Typically you have to wait a few weeks with the lower quality tapes before you can apply it to a freshly painted wall but this blue tape allows you to skip the waiting period and apply it as soon as the paint has fully dried. (That’s more like it!)

I was scooching my butt across the entire area of my dining room and hallway with green tape in hand while my fella got the more precise job of applying the blue tape above…. which also meant he didn’t get a dirty butt.

Once the never-ending taping finally did in fact end, we did all the painting. *Wait four hours* Time to tape again! This time we had to prep for the beige paint above the trim. This means laying the tape flat against the top of the trim. Seems simple enough however it’s pretty hard to get a completely straight line of tape running the length of the board.

I found this step much more difficult than the first taping saga. I sat back and watched my perfectionist fella pulling up and re-taping my sections or as he called it, “double-checking.” We also ran out of the blue tape so we ended up using the green stuff around doorways where paint lines aren’t as noticeable. (Which worked perfectly fine by the way)

In the end, I know very well it’s a much better idea to take the time out and do it right. No sense in having to re-do a project or having a sub-par result. I also found entertainment in our house having a colorful green and blue outline throughout. We’ve since finished painting the living area (minus closet doors) and are now working on the decorating portion which makes me want to dance a jig because let’s face it, decor and accessories are really the most exciting part of a reno.

On another note, you know something else thing I have little patience for? Messy table tops! For the past few weeks I haven’t seen the surface of my kitchen table. It’s hidden under this flurry of painting tools. I’m itching to put a colorful bowl of fruit on it or a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Painting can’t last forever… there has to be an end somewhere in sight and I’ll be waiting with a vase cocked and ready when it comes.

Stay tuned for more updates on the reno of our home to see what I do with the accessory portion of the projects. It’s coming soon!

Friday, August 26, 2011

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

We’ve been doing a million little projects around our house all at once and (much to my chagrin) none have been completely finished just yet so I figured I would give you a look at one of said projects being my front door.

When we bought our house it had a solid wood brown door with all brown trim. I wish I had taken a picture before we did anything at all to give you an idea of the unpleasantness. The first thing we did moving in was change the locks so we removed the ugly old round brass handle with the fancier bronze one you see above. The old handle matched the door knocker which I didn’t care much for either. It also had a jar-like exterior light not visible in this pic but trust me when I tell you it wasn’t pretty. Overall it just felt sort of bleak and unwelcoming. After a little handy work and some elbow grease we got it looking like this:

There’s something about a red door that’s always made me smile so I knew I would want one for my home. We debated getting a whole new door so I could switch the side of the handle but this beat up old wood door started to grow on me so we decided we would save ourselves the money and stress; it would stay and get a spiffy new paint job. We also added some hanging pots and the basket to bring in some summer cheer. The exterior light was changed out for a bronzed finish light to match the door handle and the knocker was removed. We still need to put in the peep hole on the door in place of the knocker. We also intend on painting all the brown trim black to look cohesive. I’ll post a finished “After” picture once that’s actually completed.

We painted the door in a color from Behr called Apple Polish which is supposedly the color above but I’d say it comes out a few shades lighter than this sample. This shot has a really merlot colored tone to it on my screen but it could just be my settings. We choose an exterior semi-gloss paint to give the door a sheen and make it way easier for cleaning.

When we paint the trim black it will be done in Behr’s Beluga which will also be a semi-gloss to match the door.

I hope you like my progress so far and I can’t wait to post the completed project!

Friday, August 19, 2011

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Hello everyone! Hope you all had a good weekend. Mine was great (and busy!) so I thought it’d be fun to share with you some of my on-goings of my weekend. First off, I baked a blueberry pie. This isn’t all that exciting but what makes it extra special is that the blueberries were from my garden. Pie tastes that much sweeter when it cost next to nothing. I love the smell of a fruit pie on a hot summer day. The recipe I used took me literally five minutes to throw together too and it A-M-A-Z-I-N-G which was a huge bonus. I’ll share the easy-peasy recipe I used at the end of this post. We also had dinner at the in-laws which was so delicious. My mother in law has this natural talent with cooking; she does it with such ease it baffles me. She can whip up this colorful dishes that taste professional as if it was as easy as making peanut butter toast. (PS. She doesn’t read my blog so I’m not sucking up, just being honest!)

I also started a new book called The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, which has been extremely interesting and heartbreaking at the same time. If you haven’t read/heard about it, it’s a true story (a memoir) about this young girl’s life growing up with “free spirit” parents who don’t abide by the normal parental ideals. There are some very horrific stories involving her and her siblings life experiences but there is a good mix of sweet moments too.

On Saturday night my fella, my big bro and I all headed down to The Orpheum in Vancouver. The building is breath taking, I couldn’t stop ooh-ing and ahh-ing even though it wasn’t my first time. It feels like a ritzy opera house inside with ornate gold trim and velvet read curtains and gorgeous chandeliers everywhere. Sorry about the quality of photos, had to snap them with my cell phone and it was pretty dark.

Isn’t it beautiful? If you didn’t know where you were you might think you were sitting in a royal castle.

The reason we went to The Orpheum was to see a stand-up act by Tosh.o’s Daniel Tosh. He has a somewhat shocking sense of humor but the man makes me laugh. He first came out with his two dogs and introduced them to the audience which I found cute. All-in-all it was a really nice night out with the boys.

Now for the best part of my weekend….

I got a new fur baby! We went into Petsmart on Sunday with no intention of adding any members to our family but as soon as I held this little ball of softness it was love at first sight. He instantly purred and nuzzled my neck as if to say, “Will you take me home and love me?” Yes, yes I will baby boy.

So I filled out the adoption application and brought him to his new home. I had pangs of guilt about taking him away from his brothers and I was more than worried about how my kitty would react to this new resident (not very well so far, by the way) but my gut told me to take the leap. How could bringing more love into our home ever be a bad thing?

He’s been a happy little boy ever since he came home. He doesn’t care much for being left alone but he is full of snuggles and loves doing the usual 12 week old kitten things.

We named him Henri. It felt so fulfilling to bring an unloved animal into our home which is brimming with love. It warms my heart to know that this is one less animal that will have a bad life; he will be loved until he can’t take it anymore!

So that was my weekend, full of fun and love and laughs and lots of good eats.

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